This fusion project would combine time lapse, video and maybe a still image or two. The folks that work so hard were quite cooperative as I had carte blanche to go and photograph anywhere I wanted. I was certain not to interrupt their workflow as they prepared more than 200 orders during that day. I hung cameras above the cooktop, on refridgerators, on the take away window until the day wound down and day became night. Nighttime, the time to rest. Waiting as the last order served, the grill switched off , the bookkeeping complete, and then, finally, time to switch off the lights and go home.

I hope that you enjoy spending a few minutes in the day of the people at Lalo’s!

I will be returning to GPPA for their fun convention in March and will be teaching at the Georgia School again next summer. I hope that you can be there. I wanted to share a quick, fun time lapse that I shot while photographing the group photo at the school. I hope that you like it!

Happy Jack is a great, rather cool (in temperature) area and lodge, which is just east of Sedona. In this camping region of pine, sitting at 7540 feet above sea level, it quickly helps you forget the blazing 116˚ blast furnace that is Phoenix valley in the summer months. For that reason alone most Phoenicians scatter to the north, east and west to find cool days and nights. When we arrived in Happy Jack, just after a long drive up from the valley that continued to interrupted by some remarkable sights, we got out of his truck and stretched to the coolness of the mountain air, a chilly 65 degrees! I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a bit.

We began the journey north on Friday at about 4 PM. We got about 10 miles away from Jim’s home when a row of Saguaro cactus atop a hill caught my eye as they stood in front of some towering cumulus clouds. It was spectacular. We shot for about an hour and thought we should get on the way to the destination that was still 2.5 hours away. Before we knew it those towering cumulus clouds matured into lightning belching thunderstorms. We had to pull over and enjoy the light show right behind a few majestic Saguaro cactus. Once the show ended it seemed a bit late, and our hunger was on the rise. We thought it wise to delay our departure until the next day. Hopefully you saw the previous post of images from the day. (http://kensklute.net/2011/08/summer-weather/)

So here we go again. Let’s hit the heat, climb out of Phoenix and watch the turbulent Arizona skies on the way to Happy Jack. We celebrated getting past the Saguaros that we found impossible to get past yesterday. Today we got up to the Sunflower area before the mix of clouds, sun, and cracks of lightning forced us to pull over, not because of driving difficulty but because of the magnificent images appearing all around us.
We were amid layers of mountains with clouds just cooking by, dumping buckets of rain on nearby canyons and creating quite a soft blanket around the mountains, echoing with claps of thunder. Look to the west and there is lightning, look to the northeast, yep, more lightning. We were in the middle of a nice sized cell. It was gorgeous and produced a magnificent lightning-scape that I cannot stop looking at. See if you don’t agree that you can see the lightning in the foreground, clouds in the middle ground and the hills in the background. People that have studied with me have learned thru my repeated chants of foreground, middle ground and background will recognize that exemplified here in the lightning image. There were many images that I was lucky enough to capture this weekend, but this is my favorite. I was content after seeing this and some black and white collections of the evil looking sky.

It’s time to get back to the task at hand and get up to Happy Jack. Just after we passed through the town of Payson, as we were climbing into the forest, the sun saw it’s chance and peeked out below the cloud deck to show it’s smiling face. It bathed the landscape in warm, delicious light, all the time the rain continued. Awesome, look east! Look behind us! Pull over I begged. There it was. A rainbow. The elements came together, the sun, the rain and the angle. How lovely it was. We watched it grow across the sky. It was amazing.

Wait, what’s that?

Yes, it’s a double rainbow! It’s continuing to grow, right across the sky until it reaches the other side. Late in the afternoon, with the sun just above the horizon, it seemed to provide the last ingredient that was necessary to treat us to a complete double rainbow! What a spectacle! A double rainbow illuminated by the last of the suns day reaching across the sky. What great fun we had gathering the images and getting the opportunity to catch up with each other after some recent trips around the country.

We started out on Friday to fetch home a trailer and as it turned out, three days later we accomplished the task. Little did we know what gems we would collect along the way. It all goes to being prepared with the right equipment in case we experienced anything along the way. I carry many tripods, a few camera bodies, a gaggle of lenses, intervalometers, timers, batteries, lens cloths, air, cf cards, and open eyes. The later being the most important. Keeping your eyes open to what is different. Determining that there are enough elements present in the possible image to warrant stopping and capturing the image, all the while, delaying our task a bit more. It was well worth the time, and the exercise to troubleshoot how to capture a challenging image, like daytime lightning. The sweet finale being the double rainbow!

Serendipity.

Serendipity is when someone finds something that they weren’t expecting to find. The weekend was serendipitous. That is what I love about photography. It is often serendipitous! We just don’t recognize it until afterwards when we review the take of images created.

Be aware of what is going on around you at all times. it’s something known as situational awareness. You can prepare just in case. If you look as you go through your day, you will see something that you never thought that you would. Seeing the gifts placed in front of us is a gift in itself. I enjoy  having my eyes  open to see what is different. Then to have the ability to do something about it is the completion of the gift. Having the correct tools to capture what your new found vision has recognized is wonderful growth. No matter how long we have been shooting, we still find new ways to see and refine our vision. Keep your eyes open and enjoy life’s serendipitous moments when they appear. Hopefully with that,  may you have a camera to capture the moment.

I hope that you will find a way to join me and learn how to transition from stills to motion! Please check my website to see where I am teaching and let me show you how to get your images into motion!

More than that, I hope and pray that as Hurricane Irene approaches my families and friends on the East Coast, she is kind to them. It will be a long 48 hours as she progresses up the coast and heads to my native Long Island. I’ve got my fingers crossed and am praying that the damage is minimal. It is amazing to hear that Mass Transit in NY is suspended. No subway, no trains, no busses, NYC is closed! How strange!

The Abandoned City of Detroit from Ken Sklute on Vimeo.

Photography thru the years has brought me to many places. After a wedding one Labor Day weekend, I drove from Long Island to Norwalk, Conn. because I had read and seen an image in Newsday, my local newspaper. The image was of a couple of hot air balloons in the air. I left the Island at midnight and slept a few winks in the car, once I found the launch field. As the sun rose, so did 30 colorful, exciting, beautiful hot air balloons. In a matter of minutes, about 30, they unpacked, unrolled, inflated, and blessed the air as they flew across the Long Island Sound towards Port Jefferson. I had put 15 rolls of Kodachrome 64 thru my Canon A-1 and was in love again. It was awesome. I had to get back to the Island as I had a wedding later that day. All the way home I thought about finding out where next. Where can I drive to in the rare occasion that I have an open weekend day. In those days I was shooting weddings most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. All that I could envision was flying in one. During that week I found the next festival was being held in Glens Falls, NY, a bit past the state capital of Albany, a four hour drive from Long Island, in three weeks. I only have a Friday and Saturday wedding, so, I planned on leaving right after the wedding ended at Midnight. Well, I’ll catch an hour or so of sleep and it’ll be time for a colorful spectacle to unfold right in front of my, now, bloodshot eyes. It was remarkable and I made a connection in order to fly in the final evening flight, later that day. How cool. It was amazing! I am now hooked. As soon as I had time after returning home, I looked into finding a used hot air balloon. I found one that met my preferences and drove to New Hope, Pa. to bring her home. I had bought a balloon and I was ready to learn how to do this by myself. I accomplished my hot air balloon pilots license in 1990. It was a magnificent platform to photograph from. Every time that I flew, I was in a place that nobody else was. It was remarkable. So was the light, almost always sunrises and sunsets. I came back from taking my pilots test in Oakland, Ca and I worked on my commercial license rather than just for sport. Once I got home, I began a ride business on Long Island. Yes, Long Island. 15 miles at it’s widest point. It helped me become a very good pilot. I was surrounded by water and I had to keep the balloon over land! It was sometimes challenging to do so. But it was wonderful. I would fly in the mornings before opening my studio at 11 AM. As I sit here now, thinking and putting my words to keys, I recall having many couples get engaged in my balloon and even had a few Brides and Grooms fly with me on the day of their weddings. Fast forward many years and my photoghraphy and my passion for hot air ballooning were brought together again, in New Jersey.

Canon asked me to design a few ideas for destination workshops that people would enjoy coming to and learning at. The idea was born. I could have my photography world infiltrate my hot air ballooning world. It was great to be leading some of my Canon peers along with a group of eager students looking to  see the world just a bit differently. Let’s hold the workshop at the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in Whitehouse Station, about 45 minutes due west of Manhattan. It was awesome to be back around 125 of these gentle giants and teach some gifted and hungry students in this target rich environment. Let me warn you how exhausting it is to be up three mornings in a row at 4 AM and motor all the way thru the day. My poor students were happily tuckered out! We had a rather deep and intense session, with each attendee growing photographically as well as spiritually. So, with all of this history shared with you, it was a remarkably gratifying weekend with  great new friends and wonderful opportunities for imagery. I am going to share a slideshow of my work with you here and in the days to come, I will post a few whimsical time lapses as well. Enjoy these images and treat yourself to a hot air balloon flight. You’ll be glad that you did!

Canon Workshop at the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning from Ken Sklute on Vimeo.